Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative 2025

Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative showcases the depth of artistic excellence and merit of contemporary art practices in Michigan and recognizes the creativity, rigor and innovation of artists and collaboratives working in the region, inspiring the next generations of artists in our state.

In the of fall of 2024, Stamps Gallery announced an open call for artwork, inviting emerging and mid-career contemporary artists from Michigan working in all types of media to apply. 

A shortlist of three artists were selected by a prominent national panel of jurors: Juana Williams, art curator and writer based in Detroit, Michigan; Melinda Zacher Ronayne, former director of visual arts at the Interlochen Center for the Arts; and Parisa Ghaderi, assistant professor of graphic design at Shoreline Community College and winner of the 2023 Envision: Michigan Artist Initiative Award.

Meet the shortlisted finalist artists for Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative 2025:

• Conor Fagan obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the spring of 2014. Among his many numerous awards and grants, he has been one of twelve international artists selected to participate in The 31^st annual International Symposium of Contemporary Art in Baie – Saint Paul, Quebec; a year-long artist in Residence at the Roswell artist-in-Residency in Roswell, New Mexico; and a featured artist at the 2020 Spring Break Art Show, in New York, New York. He has had solo shows with My Pet Ram and Gitler & in NYC, and most recently has been featured and won an award at The 2025 Regional Show at the Dennos Museum and Cultural Center. He has works in numerous public collections including the Waterton — Global corporate collection, the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Baei St Paul. His work has been collected privately both nationally and internationally. Currently, he teaches and lives outside of Traverse City at Interlochen Arts Academy, nestled among the trees, rivers, and lakes of northern Michigan.
• Katie Mongoven/上秋莲 is a Chinese American fiber artist from Washington, DC, based in Detroit, MI. Her work investigates and fortifies the space between cultural dichotomies through multiple fiber processes. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan and MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art, with the Surface Design Association’s Outstanding Student Award. She was a Roman J. Witt Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan, a Windgate University Fellow at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, and the 2024 Barstow Artist-in-Residence at Central Michigan University. Other residencies attended include the California Institute of the Arts, the University of Michigan, Vermont Studio Center, and forthcoming Stove Works (TN) in 2025. Solo and group exhibitions include Central Michigan University (MI), Playground Detroit (MI), Riffe Gallery (OH), and ROY G BIV Gallery (OH). She has public and corporate commissions at the Cranbrook Art Museum, PayTile, and Cross River Bank. Her work is held in public collections at Central Michigan University, Summa Health, and MetroHealth, and in numerous private collections throughout the United States.
• Sara Nickleson is an artist, curator, and gallery director based in Detroit, Michigan. She held the position of Senior Director at Library Street Collective gallery from 2016 to 2022. Prior to moving to Detroit, Nickleson was the Head Curator and Director of Collections at the Design Exchange (DX) in Toronto, Canada, where she curated a number of internationally acclaimed exhibitions, including This is Not a Toy, The Politics of Fashion, and 3DXL. Nickleson has written for a number of arts publications, including exhibition catalogs (José Parlá: Polarities; This is Not a Toy; Coping Mechanisms, Sam Durant: Iconoclasm) and artist monographs (Sam Friedman, Tyrrell Winston). She has been a visiting curator and critic, and was invited by the British Council to take part in their Design Connections symposium as part of London Design Week in 2015. Exhibitions of her artwork include a solo show at Louis Buhl & Co. (Detroit) as well as a number of group presentations. Nickleson received her BFA from the University of Windsor (Windsor, Canada); a BID from the College for Creative Studies (Detroit, MI); and an MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

From June 26 through August 2, 2025, Fagan, Mongoven, and Nickleson will present their work in a group exhibition at Stamps Gallery, with logistical and curatorial support from the Gallery’s professional staff.

2025 Envision Awardee Named

At the exhibition’s opening reception on June 26, the jury reconvened to select the Envision 2025 Award recipient, awarding Sara Nickleson a $5,000 prize.

In a statement about Nickleson’s work, the jury noted: ​“Sara Nickleson’s ambitious paintings boldly invite us to explore our relationship with the unknown. At a time when the world is deeply divided, when diverse perspectives and experiences are being weaponized by fear, Nickleson’s paintings meticulously build another world — one mark, one brush stroke at a time. Layering colors and mark-making that draw on prehistoric forms and symbols, Nickleson seeks a new futurity that acknowledges the losses, and co-existence that build on our differences and commonalities. Sara has been consistently building her visual vocabulary and we are excited to see where she will go next.” 

Envision: The 2025 Michigan Artist Initiative is curated by Srimoyee Mitra with the assistance of Joe Rohrer.